Duel Alive (Working title)
by Demon Lord Cashmere Snow
Summary: An action/adventure title filled with tactics and gritty battles. It might be similar to a sports/adventure type manga. There are no pairings in sight as of yet, but do not lose hope. I'll be adding more as I go along. AU post PoA.
1. Chapter 1

Duel Alive (Working title)

**Disclaimer: I put in a bid of one cheese sandwich for the rights to Harry Potter, but JK got away with it by bidding a club sandwich. Jokes aside, I don't own Harry Potter. I do however, own the OC, Evan Gray, and the various non-cannon spells that are in use below. I'll make a special note if the content I'm using comes from someone else.**

Strawberry ice-cream with a dollop of hot fudge.

'Food of the gods' Harry thought as he reached his spoon back into the bowl for another spoon. The ice cream was lovely and was enough to convince one to ignore the unkind ministrations of the summer sun in London.

On another day, this very ice cream would have been enough to make him forget his troubles, fall to his knees and thank god for blessing him with a sense of taste. Alas, this was not most days.

His third year and by extension third misadventure was over and the magical world had decided, as always, that he would be greatly benefitted by returning to the care of his kind and gracious relatives. That, however, was far from the problem. A brown wig from a London shop and a little makeup later, a brunette with green eyes and no distinguishable features was sitting in the ever crowded Diagon Alley, eating ice cream at Floreans'. No, that problem had been easy to deal with.

The main problem was that left alone at home (though he hated to refer to it so), he had naught to do but brood on the results his adventures and borne. Each time, every year, he was faced with a situation where he was helpless, forced to conform to the situation and wait for a stroke of luck or a deus ex machina to come to his aid. It was true, life sucked, and the sundae wasn't helping.

He idly began wondering how much he would have to ramp up his stud-

"May I sit here?"

A voice broke him out of his gloom. He looked up at the owner of the voice; a young man with salt and pepper hair and sky-blue eyes. He was thin, but not without muscle and had no particularly distinguishing features, the perfect candidate for a movie extra, but the part that stuck out the most was the smile on his face. Perfectly ordinary.

"I'd sit elsewhere, but everyplace else is full. Would you mind?"

Harry shrugged. It had occurred to him that he wasn't looking like himself at the moment and probably didn't have anything to fear from the stranger. True, he'd rather sit alone, but all the same, he didn't particularly mind the company. Perhaps it'd be enough to drag him out of his pit of despair. Pffft... and maybe all his enemies would mysteriously drop dead. Fat chance.

Seeing this the stranger hastened to sit down, dragging himself a chair and settling into it comfortably.

"Order?" came Mr. Fortescue's voice from the counter.

"The usual" was the reply.

Turning to Harry, the stranger put out his hand.

"Evan Gray, nice to meet you."

"Charles Evans, same"

Harry had long decided on his pseudonym. It was a clever construction; he had used his paternal grandfather's first name, Charlus, and his mother's family name giving him an easy, no strings attached, Muggleborn identity.

Cocking his head to one side, Evan stared looking him over, studying him.

"So young Charles, what ails you? In the few moments I've been here, you've been sighing deeply, scrunching up your face and looking generally miserable. Not expressions one expects to see at an ice cream parlor. Is your sundae that bad?"

Had he? He certainly hadn't realized he had been so obvious about it. No wonder no one had wanted to sit near him. Shaking his head he made to reply,

"It's nothing, just some problems at school. Nothing you should be worried about."

Waving off his reply, Evan's smile just grew a bit before he replied,

"Tell me. Sometimes it helps talking to a nameless, faceless stranger. Maybe you'll feel better. Despite what I look like, I'll have you know that I'm a responsible, good advice giving adult. If not, at least you'll get it off your chest. Don't worry I won't tell anyone."

Harry bit back the temptation to sigh again. Out of all the strangers who could've sat near him, he had to get the nosy one, how typical of his luck. Well, bluffing sounded like a bad idea, so editing was the only option he had left.

"Umm.. I have.. problems with school. There are eh.. 'bad teachers' that like to pick on me, and eh.. sometimes the other students won't stop bothering me..."

Damnation. He would have to work on his bluffing skills. He would not be winning any Oscars anytime soon.

To his surprise Evan seemed to buy the story. The smile had dropped and he was staring at him with a pensive expression. Studying me closer, this time paying close attention to Harry's clothes and bruises he started slowly,

"These students who.. bully.. you, do you want to learn to defend yourself against them?"

Evan's expression was dead serious. For the first time, he started looking dangerous. Harry could feel the pressure from the one before him. He felt like a child sitting next to a dangerous, bloodthirsty tiger.

"Your sundae, strawberry with hot fudge, as usual and it's on the house, as usual."

It looked like Mr. Fortescue had returned with the sundae. Thankful for the interruption Harry shot a thankful glance at the man, before the words registered.

Eh? Strawberry with hot chocolate fudge? Harry stared incredulously at the man. While definitely the tastiest item at the store, the sundae was not one that was on the menu. He had assumed that it was a unique sundae that the owner made just for him. It was shocking to see someone else eating the same.

Ignoring Harry's expression, Evan pressed on,

"I can show you a way to get rid of the bullying forever. Those purebloods will never bully you for being muggleborn again. I promise you that."

Setting down the sundae bowl in front of Evan, Mr. Fortescue shot Evan a glare before giving Harry a sympathetic expression and gesturing for a word in the back. Nodding compliantly, Harry hopped off the stool and followed the man to the back of the parlor.

* * *

"Harry, yes I know who you are, I just wanted to make sure you knew a few things about Evan. The place he's going to take you to, if it is where I think it is, it's dangerous, too dangerous. I want you to be careful. If you go with him, I have no doubt that Evan will keep you safe, but all the same... It's probably for the best for you not to go. It's too dangerous for you."

Harry's curiosity was now piqued. Danger, grow stronger, strange place? What was this about?

"Mr. Fortescue, thank you for looking out for me, but how bad can it be? I've been past a basilisk, a psychotic, possessed teacher, abusive relatives, dementors and an Azkaban escapee. I want to get better at magic and become less reliant on my teachers all the time. How bad could it be?"

"Much worse. Even at the peak of their powers, Dumbledore, Grindelwald, You-Know-Who and Flitwick never once went there. Even purebloods fear that place, and not because of the danger, but mostly because of the reputation, that place corrupts you. It makes you stronger, but it changes the way you look at the world."

Pausing for a moment before taking a deep breath, he started again,

"I just want you to be careful. Evan will protect you, but still, be careful... And be sure to reveal your identity to him. I'll make sure he protects it."

Seeing Harry's nod, he ushered him back out towards the front favoring him with a small, sad smile before muttering,

"Just like your mother... I'll have a sundae ready for you when you visit next."

Back out front, Evan had finished his sundae and was patiently awaiting his new student. Seeing him emerge and return to the table, he shot him a warm smile.

"Ready?"

"Ehhm... Where exactly are we going?"

"Young Charles, my friend, we are going to the Black Tournament."

* * *

**AN: Cut! That's a wrap! Chapter 2 is unfinished and I'll try adding Chapter 3 by the end of the week, but after that, no promises. I have very little time and I'll be rushing to update whenever I can."**


	2. Chapter 2

Duel Alive

**Disclaimer: I put in a bid of one cheese sandwich for the rights to Harry Potter, but JK got away with it by bidding a club sandwich. Jokes aside, I don't own Harry Potter. I do however, own the OC, Evan Gray, and the various non-cannon spells that are in use below. I'll make a special note if the content I'm using comes from someone else.**

"The Black Tournament?"

"Yup."

Giving Evan a curious look, Harry cocked his head to one side.

"I haven't heard of it."

"Most Muggleborn haven't. It's-"

"I'm actually a half-blood. I was raised by Muggles though."

Giving Harry an amused look of exasperation, he continued on as though he hadn't been interrupted,

"The Black Tournament was a dueling event in the... eh.. when was it again?"

"The 10th century" supplied Mr. Fortescue.

"Thanks Florean. Yes, as I was saying, it was a dueling event in the 10th century. It was banned by the 14th century by the recently established Ministry of Magic. It was an event wherein the most powerful warlocks of the land flocked together to duel and compete to be the best of the best."

Harry thought about it. Something was off, what did this have to do with them?

"So, what does some historical event have to do with us?"

Evan grinned.

"You're going to participate."

"WHAT?!"

"Wait, let me explain. When I was i-"

Here Florean cut across,

"I'm just going to stop you there Evan. Charles here has something he'd like to tell you. Believe me, it's important."

Both the men turned to Harry, who was desperately trying to ignore them. Seeing that they wouldn't stop, he sighed and decided to take the plunge. Gryffindors forward!

"I am Harry Potter."

Florean nodded contentedly. Evan looked like he was working through billions of calculations in seconds, assembling mysterious puzzles and running through several theories and ideas. Finally, turning to Florean he started hesitantly,

"So he's HER-?"

"Yes."

"And the sundae-?"

"Yes"

"So that's why you let me-?"

"Yes."

They shared a knowing look for a few seconds before Evan broke it off. Nodding, he turned to Harry,

"Back to my story; when I finished my third year at Hogwarts, the tensions between the students was huge. Being a weak 'mudblood' at the time, I often found myself in trouble a lot of the time. I was seriously considering quitting and I was sitting here, right where you are now eating a sundae when a senior that recently graduated arrived. After listening to my problems, she took me to the Black Tournament. There, we became a team and with that summer, I became a much better fighter. No one ever bothered me again. At times, after each day of work, we came to this shop and ate a special sundae prepared by my year mate, the son of the owner. Eventually, he created a special sundae for us and it became a regular fixture of our lives..."

He petered off towards the end, caught up in memories of days long gone.

Florean sighed before clearing his throat, jerking Evan back to reality.

"Sorry, got lost in my memories there. Back on topic, I want to do the same for you. Call it paying forward the debt I owe... Regardless, follow me."

The way to the Black Tournament turned out to be rather unexpected. Really? Who would check UNDER the Tower of London for an illegal dueling tournament from the 14th century?

Harry's first impressions of the tournament were similar to those that he had had years ago on first seeing Hogwarts.

The entire region was deep underground, accessible only by a tunnel, the entrance of which was the car park outside. Evan had explained that the Black Tournament had to remain hidden (not that the Ministry was capable of stopping it) and that due to general ignorance, the best place was in the non-magical world. Nodding occasionally at passers-by, he spoke at great length about how frightened he had been the first time he was here; the anxiety of being in a strange, unknown, underground place where the only light was either from the electric lighting or reflected down by a network of mirrors and how eventually his trust in his senior had won out.

After a short walk, they reached a pair of double doors made of pure black marble. Set in the doors in a contrasting white marble was a strange, floral crest with a set of words in an unknown language below them.

"That's the code."

Harry looked to Evan.

"The tournament was established by Morgana le Fey, it's her brain child. What exactly the words mean is lost to time, it was secret she carried to the grave. Most of us believe that it has something to do with the spirit of the tournament."

He gestured at the doors, daring Harry to open them.

Stepping forward and grabbing the bronze door handles, Harry yanked them open. For solid stone doors, they were surprisingly light and opened without complaint. As he opened the doors, he was immediately besieged with a wall of light and sound, blasting him back a step.

The cavern was incredibly spacious, spacious enough to include a café, a seedy-looking bar, a large important-looking building and most importantly, three different stadiums. The high ceilings of the cavern were lined with high intensity white light that illuminated the entire cavern, giving it an cool, artificial look. The streets were made of cobblestone and were supporting a huge crowd of pedestrians and street peddlers. In the far distance, he could see a lake reflecting the white lights. It seemed surreal.

Before he could ask about the stadiums, there was a roar from the crowd in the nearest stadium, catching his words deep inside his throat.

While he was working up the nerve to ask again, Evan grabbed his hand and pulled him through the dense, thrumming crowd, past the stadium and into the café. Pulling him through, he seated them both in a booth towards the back.

"Before you say anything, just listen. While here, you will call me Dorian and I will call you Charles. Now that that's out of the way, I'll just say a bit about the place we're in first. Right now we're in the 'Cat's Eyes' café, it's a great place for lunch and for meetings. Don't worry too much about eavesdroppers here, the privacy is good.

Moving on, the large stone building is the administrative building, we'll be going there later to register you as a competitor, but I'll get back to that later. It's also the authority responsible for safe betting and keeping the peace here. I'll say this, do NOT cross them.

The stadiums you saw were the locations where the actual competing occurs. In addition, there are several viewing stations and betting windows. The pay collection office is in there too, so be aware of it. Those stadiums are the heart of this place, and it's where we'll be spending a lot of our good time.

Avoid the bar for now, it's where the seedy characters hang out. They sell strength potions, wands and several other things that would probably land you in prison. Talk to me when you're older and we'll go check it out together.

Hmmm... Anything I missed out?"

"The lake?"

"Ah yes! The lake is caused by a filtration rune construct set up in the late 17th century when the Ministry tried to lay siege here. The water is fresh, potable and teeming with fish."

Giving me another of his trademark grins he drops a couple of sickles on the table before motioning him out.

"Well, let's get to the administration building and see if we can't register you.

**AN: And that's Chapter 2! The next time, things really kick off, with the first duel, the registration and a surprise meeting with an unexpected acquaintance.**


End file.
